1. Technical Field
Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to apparatuses, systems, devices, and methods for feeding and guiding materials into a converting machine. More particularly, example embodiments relate an infeed guide system usable for feeding fanfold packaging materials into a converting machine that produces packaging templates from the packaging materials.
2. The Relevant Technology
The automating of processes has long been a goal of industrialized society, and in virtually any industry in which a product is produced, some type of automated process is likely to be used. Oftentimes, the automated process may make use of modern technological advances that are combined into one or more automated machines that perform functions used to produce a product. The product produced by the automated machine may itself make use of raw materials. Such materials may themselves be loaded, provided, or otherwise introduced into the automated machine using an automated process, or such loading may be manual. Particularly where the loading is performed using an automated process, the raw materials may be positioned near the machine to facilitate loading.
The packaging industry is one example industry that has benefited greatly in recent years from the use of automated technology. For instance, boxes and other types of packaging may be formed out of paper-based products (e.g., corrugated board), and an automated converting machine may be programmed to use one or more available tools to perform a number of different functions on the corrugated board. When loaded into the converting machine, the corrugated board may be cut, scored, perforated, creased, folded, taped, or otherwise manipulated to form a box of virtually any shape and size, or formed into a template that may later be assembled into a box. One example of such a converting machine can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,840,898, which is expressly incorporated herein by this reference, and which may use various laterally or vertically spaced paths, so that multiple lines of packaging templates can be individually or simultaneously produced. In effect, the converting machine starts with a raw form of corrugated board (e.g., fanfold corrugated board in one or more separate feed paths) and converts the raw form into a template form that may then be assembled into a box or other type of package.
A converting machine that produces packaging templates may thus produce the packaging templates only after the corrugated board or other packaging material is introduced into the machine. Conventional fanfold configurations use stacks of multiple layers of packaging material. Each layer is approximately the same size and has pre-existing fanfold score or crease lines at each end to separate the layers and allow the fanfold material to stack on top of itself. Thus, the raw fanfold board may be stacked in a loading position proximate the converting machine.
To introduce the fanfold into the converting machine, various infeed systems have been developed. Some conventional infeed systems utilize infeed wheels to draw the fanfold into the converting machine. Conventional infeed wheels correspond to the dimensions of the fanfold score or crease lines. For example, fanfold material may have score or crease lines that are forty-eight inches apart. Therefore, conventional infeed systems can use infeed wheels having corners that are forty-eight inches apart. Such infeed wheels that match the length of the fanfold material are specifically designed to avoid creasing the layers of fanfold material between the score or crease lines as the additional creases have been seen as reducing the aesthetic appeal of the produced box template, and possibly the structural integrity of the box formed from the template.
By limiting the size of conventional infeed wheels to correspond directly to the size of the fanfold material layers, the infeed wheels may have a large size. With the large infeed wheels, the stack of raw materials must be placed further away from the converting machine, thus creating a large system footprint. With the large footprint, space is occupied that may otherwise be valuable and usable for other operations, and higher overhead clearance may be needed. Moreover, as conventional infeed guides are designed to use the pre-existing score or crease lines on the fanfold, conventional infeed guides are designed with a large radius to accommodate the turning of the fanfold from the infeed wheel into the converting machine in a manner that does not cause the fanfold to fold or bend between the predefined score lines on the edges of the stack of fanfold material. The conventional large radius design of infeed wheels produces a larger overall size of the infeed system which, in turn, also requires more space. Furthermore, because of the large size, conventional infeed wheels are more expensive to produce as they result in higher material, handling, and tooling costs, thus increasing the cost of the infeed system as a whole.
Because the stack of raw fanfold material and the size of conventional infeed wheels can be set apart at some distance, there is also an increased chance of inattentive operators creating safety hazards in using the converting machine. For example, the space between the stack of fanfold material and the converting machine may allow space for an inattentive operator to walk between the stack of fanfold material and the converting machine. As the infeed wheel rotates to feed the fanfold material, the rotating infeed wheel may strike the careless operator.
Additionally, where the size of the infeed wheel is generally the same size as the distance between scores or creases in the fanfold material, changing to a different size of fanfold material may result in a need to modify or change out the infeed wheel to correspond to the different size of fanfold material. For instance, the infeed wheel may have expandable and/or retractable corners that allow some variation in size, although large changes in size of fanfold material may require swapping out for a different infeed wheel, and either modification or replacement of a wheel may cause significant down-time for the converting machine.
While many wheel-type infeed systems can only feed one width of fanfold material at a time, some infeed systems are equipped with multiple infeed wheels that are arrange side-by-side. For instance, an infeed system could have two or three infeed wheels so that two or three different sizes of fanfold material could be simultaneously loaded and fed into the converting machine. Conceivably, a wheel-type infeed system could have more than three infeed wheels so that even more sizes of fanfold material could be simultaneously loaded. However, the entry into a converting machine is typically not wide enough to receive more than two or three side-by-side fanfold materials, especially with wider fanfold material widths. Thus, wheel-type infeed systems are typically limited to no more than three simultaneous fanfold widths.
Also, during a converting process, a converting machine may partially back-out the fanfold material to create the various templates. Because of the large size of the conventional infeed wheels, there is a significant resistance to backward movement of the fanfold material that can frequently cause a conventional converting machine to jam, thereby increasing downtime and operating costs.
Other types of infeed systems have been developed that do not use infeed wheels to feed the fanfold material into the converting machine. These systems typically employ at least one infeed guide that guides the fanfold material from the fanfold stack partially or entirely to the entry location on the converting machine. For instance, the infeed guide may include an entry segment, one or more intermediate segments, and an exit segment. The entry segment can simply be on opening through which the fanfold material can be inserted into the infeed guide. The one or more intermediate segments can include upper and lower guide rods and/or upper and lower flexible guide strips that are spaced apart from one another so as to form a guided passage for the fanfold material. The fanfold material is fed between the upper and lower guide rods/strips so that it passes through the guided passage and out of the exit segment. In some cases the exit segment is adjacent to and/or coupled to the converting machine, while in other cases the exit segment is spaced a distance away from the converting machine.
Like the infeed wheel type systems, these wheel-less type systems can have multiple side-by-side infeed guides to enable the simultaneous loading of multiple sizes of fanfold materials. In addition, these types of infeed systems can also have multiple infeed guides disposed vertically one above another. For instance, an infeed system may have two infeed guides horizontally offset from one another such that the inked guides are positioned side-by-side. Disposed vertically above the two infeed guides could be two more infeed guides that are horizontally offset from one another such that the second pair of infeed guides are positioned side-by-side one another and generally vertically above the first set of infeed guides. Thus, an infeed system may have several vertically offset rows and several horizontally offset columns of infeed guides for loading multiple sizes of fanfold material into a converting machine.
In a case where the infeed system has multiple vertically offset rows, the infeed system and/or the converting machine may be equipped with a cassette changer that vertically repositions the infeed guides so that the desired fanfold material can be fed into the converting machine. For instance, in a case where the infeed system includes three vertically offset rows of infeed guides, a cassette changer could be employed to adjust the vertical height of the infeed guides. More specifically, the cassette changer could include three vertically offset cassettes, each of which is associated with one of the three vertically offset infeed guides. If the fanfold material being fed through the lowest infeed guide is desired, the cassette changer could adjust the height of the cassette(s) so that the cassette associated with the lowest infeed guide is aligned with the entry of the converting machine. Once the desired cassette and associated infeed guide are aligned with the entry of the converting machine, the desired fanfold material can be fed into the converting machine. Likewise, if the fanfold from the top infeed guide is desired, the cassette changer could adjust the height of the cassette(s) so that the cassette associated with the top infeed guide is aligned with the entry of the converting machine so the desired fanfold material can be fed into the converting machine.
Similar to the wheel-type infeed systems, previous wheel-less type infeed systems have presented various challenges. For instance, the relative positioning of the exit segment of the infeed guides and the entry of the converting machine often creates a path for the fanfold material that increases the likelihood that additional creases or scores may be created in the fanfold material. More specifically, the exit segment of the infeed guides may be significantly vertically offset from the entry of the converting machine. As the fanfold material exits the entry segment of the infeed guide in a generally horizontal direction, it is pulled downward toward the entry of the converting machine, at which time it is pulled into the converting machine in a generally horizontal direction. Thus, in order to transition from the guide passage created by the infeed guides into the entry of the converting machine, the fanfold material abruptly changes direction at least two times. In order for the fanfold material to follow these abrupt direction changes, it is likely that additional creases or scores may be created in the fanfold material. While the likelihood of creating additional creases or scores in the fanfold material can be reduced by spreading the infeed system and the converting machine further apart (i.e., so that the directional changes of the fanfold material are less abrupt), this can significantly increase the overall foot print of the system as a whole. As alluded to above, it is undesirable to increase the system footprint since it would take up valuable space that could be used for other purposes.
In some wheel-less type infeed systems, the exit segment of the infeed guides is located adjacent the entry of the converting machine. In such systems, at least of part of the intermediate segment includes a curved portion that is designed to guide the fanfold material from a vertical high point in the feed path to the entry of the converting machine without creating additional creases or scores in the fanfold material. In particular, the curved portion is designed to guide the fanfold material without abrupt changes in direction that can cause the creases and scores to form. Nevertheless, as the height of the exit segments are changed (e.g., by the cassette changer to align the desired infeed guide with the converting machine entry), the curves in the curved portion of the infeed guides change shapes. These shape changes can lead to more abrupt directional changes for the fanfold material. Consequently, more friction is created as the fanfold material passes through the infeed guides and the likelihood of the formation of more creases and scores increases, as does the likelihood of the fanfold becoming jammed somewhere in the system.
With either type of known wheel-less infeed system, there is also a high likelihood of the fanfold material being creased, scored, or becoming jammed in the infeed system when the fanfold material is fed backwards. As noted above, at some points during the converting process, the converting machine may feed the fanfold material backwards through the infeed system. In such circumstances, if the fanfold material is pushed through a path that requires abrupt direction changes or that is high friction, there is a high probability that the fanfold material will be bent, creased, scored, otherwise damaged, or will become jammed in the infeed system. As will be appreciated, these results are undesirable since they lead to an inferior box template and/or create significant amounts of downtime for the infeed system while the jammed material is removed.
Accordingly, there exists a need for alternative infeed systems that are more efficient, less costly, less likely to damage the fanfold material, and which are less prone to downtime and delay.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.